English GCSE tuition also available. Back in 2004 I had my son Kai. I had two choices, one stay here in the UK and struggle as a single Mum (I'm disabled, so as I'm sure you can appreciate, it would have been difficult bringing up a baby on my own) or, choice number two, move to Menorca with my parents. It took a while to make the choice, but in the end my phone did it for me, by showing a screen
saver of clear blue waters, white sandy beaches and bright blue skies! No contest really! New life, new start, but there was a big problem. I didn't speak the language! Having been there for two years, I needed to get Kai into a social setting so I went and saw the local Guarderia (nursery school) where I had a very basic chat with the Head teacher. It was then that I realised that I HAD to learn the language. This was because the teacher said ' ¡Los niños son esponjas! (the children are like sponges)'. Within a few weeks of Kai starting, he was coming home and saying things like 'mesa' (table), 'perro' and 'tengo hambre' (I'm hungry), some things never change! I signed myself up for Spanish lessons with the local town hall and a few weeks later, I was in a classroom full of all different nationalities, with a teacher that ONLY spoke Spanish! Most terrifying experience of my life that's for sure! A few months went by and I needed to work, I took a TELF course and started to advertised my lessons for learning English. Within a matter of hours, I had my first school aged student. They came to my house and we chatted in Spanish, and the children corrected my BAD mistakes with humor! About a year later, I went out for a coffee with a friend and this old boy walked in asking if there was anyone who could teach him Spanish. I looked at my mate (who was 100%) fluent) and she looked at me. I said 'Why are you looking at me?' She said 'Yes, I'm fluent, but unlike you, I can't tell you the why's and wherefores of the language', at which point, I looked at this old boy (he was 88!) and said 'when can you start?' Expat number one! Word got around and I ended up running English and Spanish classes side by side and they were going really well, until the financial crash of 2008, and sadly Menorca was hit really badly and has never really picked back up. I ended up loosing all my students (bar 2) overnight. In 2012, I made the heart wrenching decision to move back to the UK. A complete relocation, with bags and all! I left my son there (who was 9) so I could build a life for us both. A year later I finally got my first job in the UK, which I hated! I stuck at it for 3 years and and brought Kai over. I then applied for another job that was far more interesting. Sadly, 6 weeks into it they started bounding the phrase around 'Company Restructure'! Obviously, last in first out. Redundancy number one. This was followed by 3 other redundancies! As I was working in my third role, I started thinking about testing out my Spanish level and signed up for a Spanish degree with the OU. After my 3rd redundancy, I started working part time for my local council, where I was working 3 days a week. I got my 3rd year Spanish books through and started going through them, thinking 'OMG! If I don't start using this on a daily basis, I'm going to loose it!'................... AMO Languages opened on the 17th September 2020!
